These Guava Cookies are buttery little tropical gems made from a base of pure butter shortbread cookies, covered in coconut flakes and filled with a dollop of guava jam in a thumbprint style.
I’m a sucker for anything tropical and these coconut guava thumbprint cookies have it all! Coconut and guava are two of my favorite childhood flavors and they shine in these guava cookies. The buttery shortbread cookie base sure didn’t hurt either!
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Simple and short ingredient list – the shortbread base for these guava cookies requires just 5 ingredients, with a total of just 9 ingredients including the egg wash, coconut and guava jam.
- Buttery and fruity – just like classic shortbread cookies, these cookies are melt-in-your-mouth delicious with crispy coconut flakes and a jammy fruity center.
- Scalable and interchangeable – you can easily scale up or down for a larger or smaller batch of cookies, and swap out different jams for different flavors too.
Ingredients and substitutions
As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips:
- Butter – unsalted butter is used in the shortbread base for these guava cookies. I don’t recommend using salted butter here since the recipe calls for only a small amount of salt and salted butter will be too salty.
- Flour – all-purpose flour will work in this recipe. If you use cake flour or add a little cornstarch to the all-purpose flour, the cookies will have even more of a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Sugar – regular granulated sugar is all you need.
- Salt – just a tiny bit of kosher salt is used to enhance the flavor.
- Vanilla extract – only use pure vanilla extract for the best flavor.
- Egg – one egg is used for the egg wash.
- Cream – just one tablespoon of cream is needed for the egg wash. You could also use milk or water here as well depending on what you have on hand.
- Coconut flakes – use plenty of unsweetened coconut flakes to roll the cookies in for extra coconut flavor. If you have larger coconut chips, you could chop them up in the food processor. You could use sweetened coconut as well but the cookies will be sweeter.
- Guava jam – this is the jammy center of these guava cookies so make sure to use good jam.
Tools you’ll need
- A stand mixer or electric hand mixer will be handy to help you make the shortbread dough.
- A food processor only if you need to chop the coconut into smaller flakes.
How to make guava cookies
The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
First, make the shortbread dough by beating together softened butter, sugar, and vanilla extract. Then add the flour and salt and mix until the dough forms. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.
When the dough is ready, take it out of the fridge and divide into 1 oz portions. Roll into balls. Dip the dough balls in egg wash and immediately roll in coconut flakes to cover completely.
Place the dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2” apart. Use the back of a teaspoon to press an indentation into each dough ball.
Fill each indentation with just ½ teaspoon of guava jam and bake until golden brown.
More baker’s tips
- Don’t use your thumb – for the thumbprint indentation, using a teaspoon will make it much cleaner and more uniform.
- Flour the back of the teaspoon – before using the teaspoon to press the indentation in the cookie dough, dip it in flour to prevent sticking.
- Don’t add too much jam – you only need ½ teaspoon of jam for each cookie, if you use too much jam, it will not stay within the indentation and spill over.
- If the dough cracks while you’re making the indentation, you can use your fingers to squeeze it back together.
Storage
Baked guava cookies will last 3-5 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
You can freeze the cookie dough just before adding guava jam. When ready to bake, simply add the guava jam to the indentation and bake the cookies directly from frozen.
FAQs
I fill these cookies before baking to allow the jam to set with the cookies as they bake.
You can fill these with different jam, dulce de leche, or lemon curd.
I use unsweetened coconut in this recipe because I think coconut already has a natural sweetness to it. But you can certainly use sweetened shredded coconut instead. That would make your cookies a little bit sweeter but no less delicious.
More tropical recipes
📖 Recipe card
Guava Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
For the cookie dough
- 12 oz unsalted butter (room temperature, 3 sticks, 340 g)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 g)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 ½ cup all-purpose flour (472 g)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For egg wash and topping
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon cream (substitute milk or water)
- 3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 6 tablespoon guava jam
Instructions
- Beat softened butter with sugar and vanilla in the stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until fluffy.
- Mix the flour and salt in a small mixing bowl thoroughly with a whisk. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until the dough comes together.
- Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured board and shape into a disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
- When the dough is ready, take it out of the fridge, divide into 1 oz portions and roll into balls. This will make about 34.
- Beat an egg with a tablespoon of cream, milk, or water, to make egg wash. Add coconut flakes to a plate or a shallow bowl.
- Dip each dough ball in egg wash and then roll in coconut flake. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, about 2” apart.
- Press down on each dough ball using the back of a teaspoon to make the “thumbprint” indentation. Dip the teaspoon in flour each time to prevent dough from sticking.
- Fill each indentation with ½ teaspoon of guava jam.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. You can keep the cookies in the refrigerator while the oven preheats.
- Bake cookies for 15-20 minutes until coconut flakes are golden brown, one baking sheet at a time.
- Let cookies cool on a wire rack completely before serving.
Notes
- Don’t use your thumb – for the thumbprint indentation, using a teaspoon will make it much cleaner and more uniform.
- Flour the back of the teaspoon – before using the teaspoon to press the indentation in the cookie dough, dip it in flour to prevent sticking.
- Don’t add too much jam – you only need ½ teaspoon of jam for each cookie, if you use too much jam, it will not stay within the indentation and spill over.
- If the dough cracks while you’re making the indentation, you can use your fingers to squeeze it back together.
Nutrition
This post may contain affiliate links. For more details on how we utilize affiliates, ads, and sponsored content, see our full disclosure policy. Thank you for your continued support, which enables us to keep bringing you delicious recipes, at no extra cost to you.
Would it make a difference if I just used shredded coconut?
You can use shredded coconut, you may not need as much as the recipe calls for since shredded coconut will pack into the cup more, but no difference in taste.
I made these with dessicated coconut and got great responses from our prayer group. I was a bit afraid the dough would be crumbly as some complained of Ina Garten’s recipe, but it held together just fine and I didn’t even need to refrigerate it to keep it from melting. Thanks, five stars!
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, Christine! I’m glad you like these cookies 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, looks very yummy. If you could update it with metric units of measurement like some of your recipes, that would be really helpful 😁.
Thanks Carol! I’m trying to go through all them but it will take a while 🙂
Recipe to a T came out too dry to add jam. Mixed it all back together and added 1/2 cup of milk and they came out perfectly.
No guava to be found in Utah, but peach worked beautifully.
These look so darling. I’m not sure if I can get guava jam but I’ll be looking out for it so I can make these now.
I got guava jam from farmer’s market style grocery store Sprouts, maybe you can find it somewhere similar?